STOP looking for solutions…
Everyday on social media platforms and in my day-to-day work I see the following pattern:
– Scrum Master identifies an issue by themselves or via a retrospective
– Scrum Master turns to others for what solution to apply to this problem
If this is you, my counsel is to STOP.
Ask yourself two things:
– why do I need to come up with a solution for my team?
– if I come up with a solution this time, what will happen next time?
And there will be a next time.
It’s very easy to fall into the “victim, villain, hero” trap.
The team raise an issue as if they were powerless victims.
They identify the “villain” – a person, framework, practice that causes the pain
The “heroic” Scrum Master rushes in to “solve” the issue, providing temporary relief.
Everyone feels happy and accomplished. And next week, there’s a different villain, the team are victims once more, and there’s more work for our hero to do.
The presenting issue is seldom the underlying problem. If all you do is address the symptoms, then the problem will surface in a different form in the future
So instead, STOP!
Take three minutes to watch this video, with your team:
Your role is not to be the hero; you need to be the coach.
Start working with your teams to explore problem solving methods like
Ishikakwa fishbone, “evaporating clouds”, systems thinking.
Collaboratively shift from victim-villain-hero to creator-challenger-coach
Coach them to start developing hypotheses to be tested, experiments to be run.
Get the team to look up ideas, don’t provide them.
And watch how the dynamic shifts…
